This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING DATA SECTOR SUITABLE FOR HIGH DENSITY HARD DISK DRIVE earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on May 21, 1996, and there duly assigned Ser. No. 17281/1996.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive, and more particularly, relates to a method and apparatus for forming a data sector suitable for a high density hard disk drive in which data sector has a data region including an ID region incorporated therein.
2. Related Art
Hard disk drives (HDD) typically include one or more magnetic disks defining a multiplicity of concentric data tracks. Each data track is divided into sectors with intersector gaps therebetween, and each sector is subdivided into a data sector and a servo sector. The data sectors are used for the storage of main data or user information. The servo sectors are used for the storage of control data such as automatic gain control (AGC) data, track addresses and tracking servo patterns for use in position a head. Magnetic disk drives having high data density generally rely upon servo control systems for moving a selected transducer (head) from a departure track to a destination track location when data information is written or read from the disk. Exemplary disk drive architectures having head position control systems using servo information are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,660 for Sectored Servo Independent Of Data Architecture issued to Hetzler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,136 for High Capacity Submicro-Winchester Fixed Disk Drive issued to Machado et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,157 for Read Circuit Providing Two Different Reference Levels For Reading The Servo Sectors And Data Sectors Of A Rotating Data Storage Disk issued to Wada, U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,540 for Magnetic Data Storage Disk Drive With Data Block Sequencing By Using ID Fields After Embedded Servo Sectors issued to Gold, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,695 for System And Method For Generating Unique Sector Identifiers For An Identificationless Disk Format issued to Prins.
A typical data sector format of an arbitrary track of the magnetic disk includes a plurality of identification (ID) regions, data regions and PAD regions serving as intersector gaps therebetween. Last PAD region is typically a region for providing a margin between the adjacent data sectors. Commonly, the ID region includes an ID sync, an ID address mark (AM), a head and cylinder number, a sector number, a split and flag, and a cyclic redundancy check code (CRC). The data region includes a data sync, a data address mark (AM), data and an error correction code (ECC). Generally, in order to read information of the ID region and the data region of the respective data sector, the HDD must be synchronized with a clock frequency previously written on the magnetic disk by using the ID sync and data sync. In practice, as I have observed however, since the ID sync is commonly composed of many bytes (for example, 16 to 20 bytes), it is too restrictive for high density HDD application with increase storage capacity.
Recent efforts to formulate data sector format suitable for high density HDDs are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,559 for Method For Locating Physical Sectors In A Fixed Block Architecture Embedded Servo Disk File #14 issued to Best et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,848 for Sector Servo Data Recording Disk Having Data Regions Without Identification (ID) Fields issued to Best et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,903 for Sector Architecture For Fixed Block Disk Drive issued to Hetzler et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,418 for Magnetic Disk Drive Unit Capable Of Determining Data Region Position Of Data Region That Does Not Include Position Identification Data issued to Hasebe. In Best et al. ""559 and ""848, for example, a fixed block architecture sector format that includes information encoded in the servo region of a sector to enable a data recording head to locate and identify data sector for read and write operations without the need of an ID region Similarly, Hetzer et al. ""903 discloses a sector architecture that further includes information contained in electronic storage to enable the data recording head to locate and identify data sectors for read and write operations without using data ID fields. While these contemporary sector architectures for HDDs contain their own merits, it is my observation that further improvement can also be contemplated.
Accordingly, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a disk drive having a data sector format that is suitable for high density recording with increase storage capacity
It is also an object to provide an apparatus and method for forming a data sector format suitable for high density disk drives HDD.
It is another object to provide a data sector timing generator for generating a read gate output signal and a write gate output signal for efficient and effective read and write operations of high density HDDs.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a data sector format of a hard disk drive includes an ID region for recording ID information for the data sector, and a data region for recording data transferred from an external communication device such as a host computer. The ID region is formed within the data region and a synchronization signal for reading the ID information is written into the data region. The ID region further includes an ID address mark region for writing an ID address mark for the data sector, a sector number region for writing sector information of the data sector, and a split and flag region for writing split information and flag information so as to hold a data processing operation for a predetermined time, when the data transferred from the external communication device is split by a servo sector. The data sector includes a data sync region for recording a synchronization signal for reading information written on the data sector, the ID region for recording ID information for the data sector, a PAD region for separating the ID region from sections of the data region, a data address mark region for indicating a validity of data written on the data sector, data transferred from the external communication device, and an error correction code region for writing an error correction code to automatically correct an error, in case where a defect is caused within the data.